Ice Age: Clash of the Titanosaurs
by Hydra42
Summary: A mutant terror has infected the world below, and is spreading. To save both worlds, Buck and the herd must team up and destroy it. Meanwhile, members of the herd face internal problems along the way. Sequel to Odd One Out. Reviews and criticism welcome.
1. Prologue: Spies in the Sky

**Ice Age: Clash of the Titanosaurs**

or

**Ice Age 5 **

Hello, everybody! This is InkJetUnlimited42, with another long-overdue story! Many months (actually over a year) ago I discussed the possibility of adding more sequels to my two other Ice Age continuations; **Ice Age: The Odd One Out**, and **Ice Age: Trouble in Paradise**. And here it is! My only problems now are these;

1) It's VERY OVERDUE, so I'm worried I lost all my old fans' respect.

and 2) I am worried about the REVIEW COUNT! My other two stories got plenty of reviews, and I know how hard writing a successful story can be, so I am worried I will not be able to pull it off twice.

Contrary to my beginning note in Trouble in Paradise, you have every right to read this story even if you have not read my other two. This story, aside from the fact that Diego and his mate from the other stories have had kids, really will not give away spoilers. I would like for you to read my other two stories sometime if you want, but for now I am focusing on this one only!

Why? Because I LOVE feedback in reviews! It lets me know that people are interested enough in what I'm doing to let me know if I'm doing an okay job. I don't even mind criticism, because at least they care enough to comment. No reviews just tell me people don't care, and that really makes me miserable. No blackmail intended, but please!

Okay, so it's a new year and a new story, so if you are looking for some summer reading, I would put this on your list! FYI a few of these might pop up every now and then. I just want to see how this does first!

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><p>AN: Oh, and one quick quote to start the

**Prologue**

**"**It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves...in finding themselves"

- Andre Gide

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><p>Even without a drop of rain or a direct glimmer of starshine, the dim periwinkle moonlight from the translucent icy sky made everything below glow. The tops of the trees stayed still, with no wind to rustle them in the cool night. Footsteps through the placid jungle were nonexistent.<p>

It was, in a word, peaceful. Like a still moment in time. And that was what worried Buck the most.

Slipping down from his perch in a nearby tree, his electric blue eyes glanced nervously at the craggy mountain cave he was spying on. They hadn't moved yet, there was still time...

A sharp snap came from farther away, towards the fire. Buck scrambled into the shadows, feeling for a stick or a bone he could use for a weapon. He felt the edge of something pointed. Yes, he had the upper hand now, and whatever it was, it was toast.

"Freeze!" he yelled, jumping out and brandishing his new weapon. But, in usual jungle fashion, there was nothing there. Buck raised an eyebrow, then sighed. Maybe he was just being skittish. After all, fires do crackle. Hoping to have at least one good thing, he looked at the object in his hand.

A banana. Wow, a lot of good that would have done him.

"Easy, old boy," he reassured himself, smiling. "He'll be back. Hopefully he's done a better job this time." He glanced back at the cave, hoping whatever came out didn't have any blood on its hands.

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><p>Fifty more minutes passed. He ought to have been back by now. "Thrasher!" he hissed weakly, trying to carry his voice up to the cave. "Thrasher, old buddy! Have you been beaten to a pulp yet?"<p>

He slid down again from the tree and scowled, banana smeared on his face. He wouldn't have kept Thrasher waiting this long if it was him up there...

A creaky, groaning noise came from nearby, and Buck's eyes widened. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the shadow of a snarling, clawed velociraptor reflected in the firelight, ready to attack.

Finally, some good news.

"Thrasher!" he cheered, turning his body around to fully face him. "It took you long enough! What's the report, old buddy, old pal?"

The velociraptor didn't even move out of its hiding place. Buck raised an eyebrow.

"Come on, now, this is serious. What's the report?" he asked, getting annoyed. "Thrasher!"

As the velociraptor moved forward, the shadow started to grow smaller and then dissolved altogether. A small, moving leaf was all that remained. A pair of smoky greyish-purple eyes peered out, and rolled themselves.

"Hey, I just escaped death here." The small butterfly chucked the leaf off him, and brushed off his arms. "The least I'm entitled to is a dramatic entrance."

Buck sighed. "All right. Well, at least you made it back." He leaned casually against a tree, hoping for a good story. "Any trouble up there, little feller?"

Thrasher flexed his wings, looking up at Buck with a sarcastic smile. "Don't you wish." he countered, knowing Buck was just trying to set him off. "Nah, it was a bum mission. They were all asleep."

"Then why'd it take you so long to get back?"

"One of 'em rolled over on me. Took me a while to squeeze out. Thank goodness it was one of the babies, though, or I'd never be able to walk again."

"You hardly walk now."

"Ha ha ha." Thrasher added cynically, then sat down in front of the fire, warming his hands. "Point is, nothing to report. We'll have to wait 'till morning to see some action."

Buck crossed his arms, puzzled. "Huh. And I was almost certain they hunted at night."

Thrasher sat up with a scowl. "Almost certain?" he repeated, tucking his wings in, and standing up. "Almost certain? This isn't the Wildlife hour, buddy, this is war. Flat-out war." He walked towards Buck, leaving a long shadow behind him. "We gotta know what we're up against."

"Yeah." Buck muttered, holding out his palm as Thrasher flew into it. "So, what now?"

Thrasher paced, looking for an answer, then finally shrugged. "Get some sleep. All we can do-"

A roaring sound came from close by, making Buck nearly jump. "What the-" he muttered. "Thrasher, you hear that? You think it's-"

He looked back down towards his palm, finding his hands nervously making a cage around Thrasher. He was trying to fly away, bumping into the top of his hands. "Buck!" he yelled from inside. "You stupid-can't breathe-"

Buck took his other hand of, and Thrasher sat into his palm, gasping for air. "Sorry, old chum." Buck apologized shortly. "But did you hear that? It has to be them, they're waking up!" He looked off towards the cave, still not seeing any movement from within.

Thrasher, meanwhile, had pulled himself up with his hands. "You crazy...ferret!" he gasped, swatting at Buck's fingers. "You know what you almost did?" He started turning around in a circle, trying to look behind him.

This caught Buck's attention, and it was is turn to roll his eyes. "Not the wings again-" he grumbled.

"Yes, the wings again!" Thrasher yelled hoarsely. "You nearly bent them that time!" He flew down onto the ground, trying to take it easy, and ran over to the fire. Buck watched him, annoyed.

"Those darn wings mean more to you than the end of the world." he muttered, as Thrasher tried to reach behind him and brush them off. "You don't let anything touch them, you dust them off every hour on the hour-"

"Hey, if you were a butterfly with wings like these, you'd guard them with your life." Thrasher reprimanded. "No matter what, nothing happens to these wings, ever. Capishe?"

"But what's the big **deal**?" Buck walked over to meet him, gesturing with his arms every other word. "I mean, **I** got an **eye** slashed out by a **dinosaur**." He leaned against a tree, smiling. "And I still think I'm not a bad-looking guy."

"Yeah, well, ladies like eyepatches, but they're a bad source. " Thrasher shot back. "And besides, you got banana on your face, Don Juan."

Buck, in turn, wiped it off and flicked the mush at him in revenge, before walking back to the tree. He climbed back up and ducked in among the palm leaves. "They haven't left yet." he observed aloud. "But why not? They're already awake." To Thrasher, he called down "We oughta go in closer, for an attack."

"Wait a second. I just got back, remember? Everything's fine." Thrasher yelled back. "It's probably nothing. Maybe one of them woke up and just got a look at his own reflection."

"Says you. I figure-"

A piercing roar followed by an earth-shaking crash sent Buck nearly flying out of the tree. "Thrasher!" he yelled, trying to sink his claws into one of the palm leaves without it ripping. Thrasher was there in a second, flapping his wings a million times a second.

"Wait a second...they're not coming out the front!" Buck realized, as he glimpsed a swarm of black behind the crag. "They broke out, it's a sneak attack!" He tried to reach his trusty dagger with his free hand.

"But what are they attacking?" Thrasher screamed to him as the one loud roar turned into hundreds. "What are they-"

The massive formation darted around the mountain and through the trees, heading the other way. Buck tried to get his front two finger towards the dagger, and failed. Then, he tried to bite at it with his teeth.

"Don't just flap there!" Buck yelled at Thrasher. "Follow them! I'll catch up. Whatever they're doing, we can't let them out of our sight!" As he finally bit down hard on the dried tooth handle, Thrasher stared motionless up at the sky.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." he breathed out in shock. "Buck, I think we're in trouble."

"Why, they spotted us?" Buck muttered through his teeth.

"No. Look."

Buck glanced up and immediately regretted it. More than a hundred of the flying terrors were doing the unexpected; heading straight for the sky.

"They can't break through. They'll never break through." Buck muttered to himself, then added to Thrasher "Right?"

Thrasher met him with a petrified silence. "If they get out-" he shuddered. "It'll be the world's problem."

Buck pulled himself up to the top of the tree, wasting no time. "I have to follow them." he said simply. "Wait for me, you understand?"

"Whoa, whoa. You crazy?" Thrasher pulled at his arm. "You can't fight these things yourself!"

"I know." Buck glanced farther away, breathing heavily. "I'll get somebody."

"Who? Who do you know up there, huh? Besides, there isn't time!" Thrasher yelled.

"We know their plan now! Just...wait for me. I'll be back soon." Buck slung the knife over his shoulder and stood up. He tied one of the long vines loping through the tree around his dagger, and bit off the other end. He tied that around himself, and held the remaining bit tightly in his other hand. "I hope I'm still as good at the javalin toss as I was in my prime." he said to himself.

"Hurry-hurry-" Thrasher hissed, watching anxiously the swarm growing closer to their target. "They all make it up there, no one can stop 'em."

"They can't fly that high up there." Buck added. "They're not used to the temperature. I reckon...ten feet, at the most." Even in this darkest of situations, nothing could stop that mad twinkle in his eye. "My friends can take of that, no problem."

"Friends?" Thrasher crossed his arms, almost looking jealous. "What friends?"

Buck held the daggar closer to his face, and aimed in the center of the mass. "You'll see." he said with a wink.

Then, just as a sickening cracking sound was heard throughout the land, he threw.


	2. The Joys of Motherhood

A/N: Hi again! Thank you very much for reviewing. In the first two hours or so I got two reviews. That's awesome, and thanks for liking it so far!

Okay, not to overuse this, but I'm going to use another chapter quote here:

"The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together."

- Erma Bombeck

Okay, so here is Chapter 1!

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><p>Farther away, in another world altogether, a mother was laughing and playing with her two young children. The mother, rather than being part of a species with a good reputation, was a saber. But probably the only vegitarian, deep-thinking, and childishly fun saber in the entire valley.<p>

"Mommy!"

Adrian turned around, her dark brown eyes searching for her youngest son. "Yeah?" she asked, wondering why he would give himself up so quickly at Hide-and-Seek. Maybe he was bored. Three-year-old boys often got bored easily.

"Can we play another game?" he asked meekly.

Before she could answer her little boy, her other, not-so-little boy yelled out "Aw, come on! I was winning!"

She turned towards the berry bush behind her, rolling her eyes. "You couldn't think of a better place to hide?" she reprimanded. The boy came out, spitting out berries and pulling leaves out of his fur.

"Hey, you only counted to ten, Mom. And you wouldn't have expected something this obvious, anyway." he argued back. His odd, but somewhat true logic made her smile.

Buck, named after a famous friend of his father's the rest of the family had never met, was all of the childish mischieviousness in Adrian, with some qualities from his rambunctious uncles thrown in. His fur, when it wasn't full of leaves or mud, was a dark sun-catching gold, just like Adrian's. His oddly long fur on the top of his head had been tied back with a palm leaf (of course not native to the area) since birth.

And also since his birth, nine years ago, he had had an eye 'problem'. Both of them looked fine at first glance, electric blue and always charged with excitement. But if anyone looked closer at them for more than a second, they could see the left eye (Buck's left, their right) was duller, and coated over with a greyish glaze. As imagined, he couldn't see much out of it at all. But it never bothered him, as long as no one mentioned it.

"Yeah, you would have been searching for me all night." he bragged, trying to get his mom to laugh. Instead, she went over and tried to pick more leaves out of his fur.

"Just hold still, you're getting a bunch of berry juice in it." she said, as he tried to pull away.

"Mom, I can get it on my own. Why do you have to clean me up?"

"I'm your mother, it's my job to make you feel uncomfortable." Adrian joked, tearing out a small bur. "There you go. Torture over." Looking over her shoulder, she called out "What did you say again, Jordan?"

"Can we play another game?" her younger boy said, jumping out from behind a nearby tree. "Heroes and Monsters?"

Jordan, although very small, was the spitting image of his father. True, his head was a little smaller, and he had a meek but curious nature inherited from neither of his parents. But still, he had Diego's fur and forest-green eyes, and could catch on to new things very quickly.

"Heroes and Monsters? Sure, why not? It's your favorite game." Adrian beamed at her young son, and even Buck gave a smile. Not his regular sarcastic smile, which he seemed to have been born with, but a genuine I'm-glad-my-little-brother's-awesome smile.

"Yay!" Jordan jumped again, and ran all the way up to his mom. "I get to be the hero!"

"Always." Adrian smiled, and turned to Buck for encouragement. "Well, he did call dibs." he shrugged. "I'll be the monster, then."

"But Momma can't be the damsel." Jordan pointed out. "We need Sissy."

"Right, right." Adrian's seemingly permanent smile around her young son turned to a questioning sulk. Jordan, for all his enthusiasm, didn't notice. But Buck's right eye was always quick.

"Yeah, well, she blew Jordan and you off one two many times." he reasoned. "Just go on without her. Get Peaches to do it, or something."

Adrian sighed, and looked farther off to the river. "Wait...I think I see her." she observed.

Buck squinted, trying to see her. "Is she testing out that river goo again?"

"It's called peat moss." Adrian corrected, still annoyed. "But she doesn't need to blow off her family for it...again." Her fun childlike glow turned to angry maternal discipline in an instant. "I'm going to get her. We all need to talk. Now." she seethed.

Buck swallowed, remembering the last time his mom had had a 'talk' with all of them. "Can I still get Peaches?" he squeaked unhelpfully.

Adrian set off, her feet stomping the ground like a herd of marching mammoths. "Just make something up with your brother until I get back." she told him, a bite in her voice. "And no, don't bring Peaches over. She won't want to watch the carnage."

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><p>Marina, watching the seemingly boring ebb and flow of the tide, dug her paw into the mucky peat moss at the shallow bottom. "I think a few more sifting tests ought to do it." she added to herself, gritting her teeth in preparation. Then, with an added force of muscle, she ripped the strands away from their mother colony.<p>

"There." she breathed, bringing the fermented waste up to the top. She didn't care that it was seeping into her fur or that it smelled like dungbeetles. She'd finally get to prove that this stuff was useful. In a way.

"All right, now where's the sifter?" she mumbled, scrambling with her other paw for the spiderweb on the twig. Finally finding it, she brought it forward and began to scrape the moss off her paw onto it.

"Okay...this is it. Four days of theory and prep work, finally realized." she said in excitement, but with a twinge of anxiety. "I better be right."

She wiped the remaining brown goop onto the grass, and moved closer to examine the web. A bit of goop there, a few strands of fur from her hand...hopefully nothing noticeable...

There! What was that? She gasped and squinted closer, hoping for the best. A small shell of some sort...bluish-black. Sheathing out a couple of claws, she pried it away and turned it around.

"Okay, this might be something." she added to herself. She set her teeth again and very carefully pried a side of the shell open with a claw, not wanting to destroy the specimen.

Yes! There were about twelve or fourteen shriveled legs inside. This was a living creature! A bug, probably, frozen in time inside the moss. Maybe it was thousands, millions of years old. This proved everything!

"Yes, I knew it! Woo-hoo!" Marina screamed, losing her head for a brief few minutes as she laughed and stared wide-eyed at the bug. "It's all true! Dinosaurs and prehistoric insects...they're all preserved in mud! There could be millions of dinosaurs under my paws right now!"

Then, sticking the bug back on the web, her thoughts drifted off. "Maybe if I get some tools-" she breathed. "-I could dig something bigger up. A Velociraptor, a Plateosaurus...even a Tyrannasaurus, maybe!" Her wide, ambitious grin broke through as she looked into the stream of water at her crazed reflection. "Marina, honey, you've made a breakthrough! You're a legend!"

"Yeah, the Legend of the Truant Daughter."

Marina yelped and looked back, startled by the voice. Her mother was a few feet behind her, glaring.

"Oh, it's only you. But I have to tell you! I've just proven my theory-"

"Yes, and also mine." Adrian interrupted, growling. "You'd rather blow off your own little brother than step away from your 'work'."

Marina was startled, the glow of knowledge in her deep blue eyes going out. She couldn't speak. Then, knowing her mother wouldn't continue without a word, she pleaded. "But Mom, this is important to me."

"And I wish some other things were important to you, too." she shot back. "Come on, we need to talk."

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><p>Buck saw his mother and sister coming back. As Jordan pretended to jab at him a few more times, Buck called out to his scowling twin "Well, well, well. Cared to join us at last, Your Highness?"<p>

"Just shut your trap." she growled, in her usual way. "I'm already in trouble."

"You bet." Adrian added, glowering down at her. Then, her expression turned to sadness. "Marina-"

"Look, Mom, I know you said I ought to spend more time with family." she explained, moving further away. "But today was different. I found out something no one else knows yet. It's a major breakthrough. I think you should be happy about it."

"Honey, I'm the one that taught you knowledge is important. And I would be happy, at any other time." Adrian sighed. "But your brother...he always depends on you, and you aren't there." She glanced over at Jordan, still caught up in his make-believe.

"Depends on me for what? He looks fine." Marina argued.

"He just wants you to play with him. Can't you do your research some other time?" Adrian's voice raised, at last catching the attention of little Jordan. "Sissy!" he yelled, smiling widely. "Yay, Sissy here to play!"

Marina smiled at him, then turned again to her mother. "Mom-"

"Look at him. It ought to be breaking your heart every time you go away."

"You're making this too dramatic. He's just playing a game."

Adrian narrowed her eyes. "So go play with him. How is that dramatic?"

Jordan stopped fighting off his brother. "What's wrong?" he asked innocently. "Sissy doesn't want to play?"

"Sissy's gonna play, honey, don't worry!" Adrian called over quickly. Then, she mumbled to her daughter "And I can't believe it's come to this, but Sissy's going to be grounded for the week if she doesn't."

Marina sighed sourly. "Fine." she added, fakely smiling. "Can't believe you don't even want to hear my discovery, though."

"If you're a good girl, I'll listen to it later on." Adrian negotiated. With that bit of reason thrown her way, Marina dropped the attitude. "Okay." she agreed. Then, she called over to Jordan and Buck "So, what are we playing?"

"Heroes and Monsters." Buck answered. "I'd give you the obvious role, but I already called dibs."

"You can be the damsel!" Jordan cheered. Marina raised her eyebrows curiously.

"Is that a problem?" Buck asked her.

"No. But, why couldn't Mommy be the damsel?" she asked Jordan.

"'Cause she's the storyteller. When you're Mommy's age, you can be the storyteller, too." Buck said for him. Marina, not knowing what else to throw at him for fodder, stuck out her tongue.

"I thought we settled this." Adrian said over her shoulder in a sing-songy exasperated voice. Marina turned her head back to face her.

"I just can't play a damsel-in-distress, Mom." she argued. "It's derragatory. The male chauvanists-"

"It's-just-a-game!" Adrian hissed out.

"A pointless game. And I think Jordan can find something more constructive to do with his childhood than go around slaying imaginary monsters and pretending he's a little hero, don't you? You constantly encourage his ego. Why?"

Adrian was struck speechless. She didn't want this to be a bigger issue than it already was, but Marina was just throwing fuel onto a fire. Buck, sensing the shock, broke the silence.

"Yeah. Maybe he could take up magic tricks, and cut off your head." he shot at her, giving Marina his sarcastic smile she always hated. She in turn, said nothing, only because she was waiting for her mom to catch her breath and see the logic behind her words.

Adrian swallowed, and forced a dry, hurt question onto her. "So...you're saying I'm a bad mother."

This wasn't going the way Marina predicted. "What? No-"

"Yes. You think that childhood is stupid, and that Jordan's not facing the real world. And that the sooner he realizes all his dreams aren't real and that the world is a cruel place, he'll be better off? That's what you're saying here."

"Maybe he could join me on one of my projects. Gain some knowledge." Marina offered. "That's all I mean."

Adrian turned away, thinking of some rebuttle. She didn't want Jordan's whole day to be ruined. "Yeah." she decided, facing her. "I guess he'll have to. Because from now on, he's never leaving your side. Buck isn't, either."

Buck, hearing this bit in the coversation, yelled "What?" at the exact time Marina did. Adrian smiled.

"That's right. If you won't stay near your family on your own, I'll make you stay. You'll do everything together with them from now on, even if I have to make you. You can still do your projects and such, but they have to be a part of your life now."

"But Mom, Jordan I can tolerate. But Buck?" Marina questioned.

"Yeah, why punish me?" Buck whined.

"Play!" Jordan yelled.

"In a moment." Adrian said to her youngest son first. "Be patient, honey. Yes, Marina, you and Buck, too. Buck, you may spend time with your family more than her-" she glanced towards Marina, then back again. "-but you've been on my list one too many times, mister. I've already talked to Crash and Eddie about your 'escapades' together, and I think even one stinkbomb calls for some punishment."

"Yeah, bring this up now. I'm suddenly the enemy." Buck muttered sarcastically. "Those turtles were asking for it."

"And so are you. You and Marina constantly fight, as I'm sure all brothers and sisters do. But, to tell you the honest truth, I'm sick of it. Really sick of it. As I'm sure everyone else is, although they're a lot nicer about it than I am. So, I think if you spend more time together-"

"We'll fight more." Marina finished.

"No. If you spend more time togther, you'll see that fighting is stupid, because you're always going to disagree on some things. And maybe you'll even start to find the things you have in common." Adrian's resonable routine was starting to wear her out, and she stared at the ground with a big sigh. "Like getting on my nerves 24/7." she finished.

There was a silent pause. Marina and Buck exchanged worried glances, wondering if she would go off again. Then, without a hint of fear, Buck mumbled to no one in particular "Jeez, talk about a tiger mom."

Adrian raised her eyes to him. They expected her to yell again, but instead she smiled. "You bet, buster." she added toughly. Turning back to Jordan, she said sweetly "Okay, honey, Sissy and Bro-Bro can play now."

A cry of "Hooray!" followed from the small cub. The dark fury went out of her eyes. "And better yet; you can be the storyteller, too!" she added. "Mommy needs to sit this round out."

As Adrian started walking back through the clearing. Marina and Buck looked at each other again.

"You really set her off, huh?" Buck commented.

"I don't want to talk about it. Let's just be nice for Jordan, okay?"

"Sure. Maybe I'll use some of Mom's screaming for my monster act." Buck joked.

Marina, in spite of their mutual animosity, gave a small smile. "Yeah. But she's right about you, you know. You need to stop with the juvenile antics."

"Hey, I can understand why it's bugging her. But one slingshot and stupid pun aren't the end of the world." He walked over to join their little brother. "Besides, I got an example to set. Jordan here needs to know the facts of life."

"Well, just simmer down." Marina tried to reason. Which normally never worked, but one day she hoped there would be a breakthrough. "We don't want to get Mom mad the rest of the day. All that yelling's bad for her you-know-what."

Buck turned his eyes to the sky, trying to figure out what she meant. "Her throat?" he questioned.

"No." She made an eye motion towards Jordan, whispering so he wouldn't hear much. "The pregnancy. The baby."


	3. A Small Little Disaster

Adrian's paws seemed to weigh tons as she walked away from her children. The regular morning discomfort in her throat and stomach was doubled by her ordeal with the children. Why couldn't they just stop and think about what was really important for one minute?

"It's always them, in their own little worlds. Not that anything's wrong with that," she added mentally, thinking of baby Jordan. "But we all need each other now, especially with me-"

She corrected herself mid-sentence, looking down at her stomach and addressing her unborn child. "You. This. It's going to drive me even crazier."

She came to a downhill slope, leading off into the clearing she always considered her 'resting place'. The long willow leaves and grass caught the sunlight, and the wind blew softly enough to spread it all around the area. It was just a place to stop and think. Her children never went there, because it was a golden rule; don't interrupt Mommy's quiet time, or you'll be in trouble. It was a place that never was disturbed, and she could try and forget her own troubles in the beauty of it all.

Emphasis on try. But for now, she was just concerned with the slope.

"Oh boy. Here we go." she said, half to herself, half to the baby. "Another moment of discomfort. Maybe if I just take it slow."

Her paws adapted to the height slowly as she moved down the slope at a snail's pace, not wanting to put added pressure on her already sensitive joints. As she leaned into her footing, feeling more confident, the baby gave a small kick near the end and spoiled her momentum. She grit her teeth in pain as her muscles in her stomach contracted. She half-slid about two inches downward, but she opened up her claws and rooted them in the earth to stop her fall. Her breath caught in her throat as she squeezed her eyes shut from the sharp pain.

"Honey, not the best time." she wheezed to the baby, although relieved about the close call.

Then, after a few more seconds of catching her breath, she dug her claws out, dusted off the dirt, and continued walking slowly until she was under the willow tree. Perfect. The wind blew through her fur, giving her comfort and some long-needed relaxation. Hoping the baby wouldn't kick again, she lowered herself down onto the dewey grass and watched the world outside move.

"I'm always busy, always moving. And I don't mind that so much. It's natural for me. I mean, I like it most times. But there's a small period where you just need to rest. Sleep. Meditation. Like I'm doing now." she observed. And again, she was talking to the baby.

It was always good to talk on and on about things, and she'd always talked to her children. Even when they were inside her, she could always pretend they were listening. Because, she thought with an eye roll, they sure weren't going to listen to her when they got out.

"Those kids-" Adrian muttered into the wind. The baby seemed to sense her stress, and gave her another small tap to snap her out of it. Or maybe it was a coincedence, Adrian couldn't tell. She just looked back down and smiled.

"That's right, sorry. You're my little therapist, aren't you?"

Then, after some silence from the baby, she looked up at the clouds. They covered the sun for an instant, enough for even more needed shade. "How such a clear-headed mite can be my kid, I have no idea." she joked, laughing half-sullenly. "I'm a wreck, and everyone knows it."

She squinted her eyes as the sun came back out, turning her head away and trying to think of something else to focus on. Various questions filled her mind;

_It'd be nice to fall asleep here. But I fall asleep now, will I miss dinner? __Do babies fall asleep the same time as their parents do? __Would a baby have to count sheep to fall asleep?_

No, that last one was dumb, she decided. Babies couldn't count, and they didn't know what sheep were. They just closed their eyes and...boop...sweet dreams. She envied that. Sleep for her usually came when she was out of energy and her body just needed a break. She'd go to sleep all sweaty and feeling beaten up. Babies would always look cute when they woke up, too. Another major difference. Even though in the mornings Diego insisted she looked beautiful.

Well, he used to, before the early morning hunts. But she could talk to herself in the morning, too, and pretend he was there. And every night, she could try and dream that she was young again. Young and alive and newly married and not messy-looking. And definitely not a pregnant wreck.

The pointless rambling in her head was a red flag that she was getting tired, too. She ran through her schedule in her head in one quick second. She could afford to fall asleep now. It wasn't like the kids would set the whole glade on fire. As her eyelids finally closed, she smiled and had a fleeting hope for the future.

_I'll give birth to this fourth baby finally and I'll lose the weight and find time to clean myself up and people will say I look ten years younger. And Diego and I will have a second honeymoon and we can joke and laugh about silly, romantic things like we used to. Diego won't have to worry about food, either, like he does now, and the kids won't fight and I won't yell as much. And I can do whatever I want without having to worry about morning sickness or cramps or worrying how I'll look. I'll make plans to go beyond the glade and do something more with my life and nothing will stop me. I'll be young and whole again and powerful and beautiful...with my family, of course. They'll just have to keep up._

As swirls of dreams clouded her mind, she leaned her head down into the grass and let go of her worries.

* * *

><p>Gripping the large hunks of flesh between his teeth, Diego crossed through the forst, nearly out of breath. He'd already eaten before this, now he just needed to find the kids. Which, due to the loud noises and laughter he heard along the river, wasn't hard to do.<p>

"Hey, Dad!"

"Daddy!"

The two boys yelled with delight and ran to meet him immediately. Spitting the dried meat onto the ground with a bad aftertaste in his mouth, he smiled at them.

"Hey." he panted, still a bit tired from his walk on a full stomach. "You guys hungry?"

"Oh, are we ever!" Buck answered immediately, digging in to the meat. But Jordan just smiled back up at him. "We been playing a game." he said.

"Oh. Which one?

"The one where I'm a hero and Sissy is a damsel in trouble. Buck is a monster that got her and I gotta save her." Jordan summed up. "I like it when there's different ways to kill the monster. It's more fun."

Any other parent hearing killing referred to as fun would have made them cringe, but Diego was the proud father of a junior hunting machine. "Great. Just great." he encouraged, smiling. "Now, has anyone seen-"

The appearance of Marina cut Diego off. She was sputtering out water loudly and covered in various tree leaves that stuck to her wet fur.

"Oh, hey, the Lagoon Monster!" Buck teased. Marina didn't give him the pleasure of responding. "Hey...cough, cough...Dad." she said weakly.

Diego, unlike the stern Adrian, smiled. "They didn't take it easy on you, huh?"

"No!" she burst out, her deep blue eyes sparkling with indignation. "Jordan went off into this whole 'underwater monster' story, and Buck tried to force me under." she complained.

Buck, in turn, rolled his eyes. "Hey, I didn't think you cared. It's water, remember? You're around it all the time." he said through a full mouth. "Named after it, for Great Saber's sake. Hey, Dad, what is this?"

Diego was searching the trees for any sign of Adrian. "Um, gazelle." he mumbled, then started walking away. "Maybe she's in that spot of hers..."

"Dad?" Marina called after him. "Aren't you at least going to do something about this?" She gestured to Buck and her wet fur, but Diego was already farther off. He moved along the downward slope without any effort and looked around for Adrian.

"Hey." he called out softly. "Hon, you here?" He wandered down into the small clearing.

A small murmer of exahaustion came from under the willow tree. "It's too early." Adrian mumbled, without opening her eyes. "Good hunt?"

"For the most part. Kids liked it, at least." He moved closed, watching her scrunched-up face try to adjust itself. "You?"

"Mmm. Nothing to report." she replied instinctively.

"You sure? What about the kids? They do anything?"

She turned her head over onto the grass. "Kids? What kids? We're still on our honeymoon, Diego, we only just got married. What kids?" she yawned, obviously stuck between awake and asleep. Or just joking. Diego had to smile at that.

"All right, then." he laughed. "I'll just mention it again when you're awake, how 'bout?"

She groaned again, and nodded her head slightly. "I'm just so tired..." she whined. "I haven't been asleep for hours..."

Her fur had grown a little wilder since the pregnancy, losing a tiny bit of its golden gleam and looking closer to dried grass. There were small bits of grass on her sides where she'd slept, and tiny overgrown strands fell into her face. In her rumpled-up mid-morning confusion, however, she still looked amazing to him.

"I'll wake you up later, then." he whispered, bending in for a kiss. To his surprise, though, she recoiled.

"That smell."

"What?" he asked, genuinely confused.

"You've been out hunting." she continued.

"Uh, yeah."

"It's just that you smell like you've killed something." she finished, wrinkling her nose and opening her eyes. "I'm sorry to be such a nit-picker, but it's true. Can you wash up or something? It's just the vegetarian in me is vomiting."

Diego walked back a bit, wondering if the hormones were getting to her. She immediately felt guilty when she saw the hurt expression in his eyes.

"Okay, maybe that was a little harsh." she apologized meekly. "It's just...please, hon? I don't ask for much, I'm sorry I mentioned it. Really. But please."

A bit of duality in that sentence. Diego was worried. "Is there anything else on your mind? You look tense." he asked, edging back in slowly to the conversation.

Adrian, who obviously was thinking of something else, fixed her face just as quickly. "No, no! Just...no." she corrected, not wanting it to seem like an outburst. "It's fine, okay? Forget it."

Over the past few years, she'd subconsciously noted that the way to get Diego to do something was to tell him to forget about it. He tried to transition his hurt expression into his normally tough 'whatever you want' face.

"No, I don't mind. I should have thought of that before. Don't worry." He walked backwards, trying to seem nonchalant enough. "I'll just clean up, and if you want to sleep, fine. I'll just hang around with the kids or something. Quality time." He gave a small smile to add to it. "Just try not to push yourself too far, 'kay, hon?"

Adrian sighed, once again feeling like the bad guy. "'Kay." she answered back. "I'm sorry I brought it up. I didn't mean to hurt you." Now looking for a quick change of subject, she asked "What were the kids doing, by the way?"

"Oh, some game. Don't worry. Just relax." he insisted.

Not knowing what else to say, she nodded, and lay back down to sleep so he'd stop having to pretend this wasn't awkward. She peeked through an eyelid after a few seconds. She saw him sigh and turn his eyes to the side anxiously before he walked into the woods. She sighed in turn.

"Great. Now I'm the bad guy." she whispered to herself. "Why am I so candid? I shouldn't have said anything. I just didn't know he was so sensitive about it." Turning her eyes to the baby, she muttered "Maybe guys have hormones, too."

She tried laughing at that to cheer herself up. But the more she ran it through her head, the more mean-spirited it sounded. "You're right, that was stupid. Stupid stupid stupid. Why am I so mean?" she growled at herself.

She thought for a second about hitting herself, but then remembered the baby was still connected. In frustration, she plopped her head back down onto the grass and tried to sleep. She'd turned into Mom-Zilla. Maybe another quick rest would help her cool down.

* * *

><p>"Hello? What's the matter, cat got your tongue?"<p>

Diego poked his head up at Sid's comment, to find every face staring at him.

"Hey, Diego, something wrong?" Manny asked.

"Uh, no. No." he answered automatically, finding his head was drawing a blank. "Nothin' to report."

He looked around as the others continued eating. Crash and Eddie had skipped the late dinner to go off on their new catapult. Ellie was putting Peaches to bed, and Adrian and the kids were off...somewhere. It was just him and the guys. The original trio.

Maybe he could say this after all. "Um, yeah, actually just a question-well, a personal one-"

"Shoot." Sid responded. "We've got time."

"All right. Uh, Manny," he started, feeling unmanly. "When Ellie was, you know, **expecting**, did she have any...mood swings? Or hormones, or whatever?"

Manny blinked back at him. "Well, you were there."

"So, no?"

"No." Manny echoed.

"That's what I thought." He slumped back down to his meal of shredded gazelle, a small ration of what he caught.

Both Manny and Sid exchanged glances. "Oh." Sid added, with all seriousness. "I see. Trouble with the missus?"

"A bit." Diego admitted. "She seems preoccupied, and it seems like she doesn't really want to let me in to what's really bothering her. Not like 24/7 hormones, or even any yelling." He breathed out of the side of his mouth in defeat. "It's just when we got married, we used to share everything together. And it's not like she was like this with the other kids, so I'm clueless."

"Well, did you try asking?" Manny advised.

"Sure, always. Whenever that little radar comes on, I always say 'Hey, honey, what's bothering you?' 'Can you tell me what's wrong?'." he replied. "The answer's always the same; 'no'. She insists there's no problem, but I'm not an idiot. I can tell. She wasn't like this before, that's what worries me."

Sid leaned back, chewing the last of his Leaves-on-a-Stick. "Oh, yeah, the 'problems'. I know how it is." he sympathized. This was by far the oddest observation in the conversation yet, and both guys stared him down blankly.

"No, really, I do." he insisted, after a long pause of incomprehensibility.

"You know how it is?" Manny repeated.

"Yes."

"You."

"Yes."

"With women?" Diego chimed in.

"Yes."

Diego rolled his eyes. This wasn't going to help. But it was too late to stop him, they might as well get it over with.

"Do elaborate, please. I'm curious now." Manny offered sarcastically. "How is it that **you**...who's never in his life had a girlfriend...know more about women than us two **married** men?"

"The suspense is killing us." Diego gritted his teeth as Sid chewed off the last of the leaves, trying and failing to look cool.

"Oh, yes, I know. Believe me. They're real complex creatures." He lay down against the log staring up at the trees, trying and failing to be introspective. "They come at you all sweet and girly-"

"Which, again, you know how?" Diego interrupted. "Not from experience."

"_Au Contraire_." Sid argued. "I've never been involved, sure, but that's 'cause I'm smart. I've seen 'em at work, though, with other guys."

"You mean stalking." Manny defined.

Sid sat up and narrowed his eyes. "Do you want me to continue on with this?" he demanded impatiently.

"No." both males said in unison. Sid, of course, ignored them.

"All righty, then. So, as I was saying, they're really strange creatures. Oh, sure, at times they can be the best thing in the world. But catch 'em in a bad mood...whew. There's nothing worse. You give her gifts, nothing. You give her compliments, nothing." He stood up immediately, continuing his rant with gestures, thinking he was on a roll.

"You see, there's a wall. A wall, that they put up." He held out his hands, sculpting the air to signify a wall. "A wall. You followin' me? They hide everything, every little small problem behind it, see. They build it up, and they try to deal with it themselves." Clenching his fists, he acted out a fistacuffs battle with the air.

"They fight with it, like it's an opponent. Like a giant angry rhinoscerous trying to pry open a stale crab shell with its horn. And then the crab...jumps out and tries to pinch its ears off with twenty foot killer claws. And they're goin' at it, trying to battle to the death over who forgot to do the laundry or who hung out with the guys last night instead of with the beast! Rarr, rarr!" He added sound effects, as Manny and Diego watched with low eyebrows.

"Wow. Beautiful." Manny commented. "Killer crabs and women, I never would have made the connection."

"That's 'cause you're not philosophical." Sid replied smugly.

"Well, whatever. Adrian's not like that." Diego argued. "Sure, there's a wall, but she's never been nagging me. She's just distant."

"Yeah, any advice on that, Mr. Psyche?" Manny mocked at Sid.

"Don't encourage him." Diego muttered. But Sid had already started to pace.

"Hmm...well, I would say that's a different case altogether. I'd say...marry her and try to change her!" He pointed his finger in a Eureka! moment.

"We are married." Diego said. That was too stupid, even for Sid.

"Right, right." He started pacing again, then got another idea. "Give her breakfast!"

"She's a vegetarian."

"Give her flowers!"

"They aren't growing yet."

"Go on a hike?" Sid offered, running low on juice.

"She's pregnant." Diego was getting even more tired. "Is this gonna take long? I have to eat." He went back to ripping strands off his small piece of meat, as Sit sat back down.

"Okay, well, don't worry. I'll figure it out. Got the solution right up here." He tapped at his head, and the gang definitely heard a hollow sound echo off.

"Sure you will." Manny agreed fakely, yawning as well. "I gotta say, if there's one thing you're good at, it's putting a guy to sleep." He squeezed his eyes open and shut tightly, trying to stay awake long enough to finish dinner.

"I was wondering what you thought, though." Diego prompted to him. Manny shrugged.

"Ah, well, I don't know everything. With Ellie, a simple 'I'm sorry' would fix just about anything." he observed. "Adrian's nice and all, but she's not Ellie. Doesn't mean she's not nice, but I don't know as much about her as you would. I think you're going to have to take this on your own way."

Diego nodded, the simplicity of the statement sinking in. "She always loved a nice good talk." he thought aloud. "Whenever there was something wrong, we never insisted on the problem. We just talked, went on for hours, until we got to the basic root of it. She'd usually be okay after that."

"There you go." Manny smiled. "She'll let you in if you're just direct. I think. She's your wife, I mean."

"Right." Diego gave a small smile back. Adrian wasn't simple, but the solution to the problem sure was. "Just talk."

A gust of wind blew in the trees as darkness settled in. Adrian had probably already put the kids to bed, Diego thought. Which was well enough, it was late already. Scrounging down the last of the meat, he stood up and sighed.

"Guess it's time." he mumbled, as he started to put one foot forward. Just then, another gust of wind blew over the forest. This one was different, though. Sid flew back over the log he was sitting on and the embers from the fire visibly moved. Manny crouched his trunk farther away as the flames nearly burned it, and Diego bent his head down to avoid the blast.

"What was that?" he asked, when it died down.

"Don't know." Manny sat for a minute, checking the fire before getting up. "Come on. We'd better get to bed."

Sid poked his head out from behind the log. "No one's gonna look into that?" he asked incredulously.

"Sid, we've got bigger things to do than track weather." Diego silenced, heading down farther to his den.

"Besides, if it's a storm, we ought to go in for protection, anyhow. Just go to sleep." Manny echoed. As Manny and Diego both walked off to their families, Sid waved his head back and forth between them both.

"But-" he objected. "It's-There's-"

Too late. As they vanished away from the campfire, Sid scowled.

"Ah, well, who needs 'em?" he grumbled. "They're not the explorer-types." He tried to pick himself up, and dusted off his arms while looking at the sky for a sign of more crazy gusts. Instead, to his surprise, he heard a loud screech, like a rabid animal would make. And another. And another.

"If those things are deadly, this could really mean trouble. But what were they?" he asked himself. Getting a determined look on his face, he looked back to the campfire and stared off into the woods.

"I'll find out. Heck, I've got nothing to do around here, anyway. This could really be important. I could save a billion lives or something." He rolled up his sleeves...or rather, fur. "I'll show them." he decided.

He took one determined step forward...and promptly tripped over the log.


End file.
